Animated Czech Pic ‘Alois Nebel’ Enters Oscar Race

The animated film Alois Nebel is the Czech Republic’s official entry in the Best Foreign Language Oscar race, it was announced today. The rotoscope-animated, black-and-white film is based on a graphic novel by Jaromir 99 and Jaroslav Rudis and directed by newcomer Tomas Lunak. The plot revolves on a unsteady dispatcher who works at a small railway station in a remote village on the Czech-Polish border. Disturbed by hallucinations and nightmares, Alois finally ends up in a sanatorium, where he meets a mute man, who is also disturbed by the past. The pic is produced by Pavel Strnad of Negativ, in association with Czech TV, Tobogang and Pallas Film. World sales are handled by The Match Factory.

According to some sources, the producers may also enter the film in the feature animation reach, which means there will certainly be 16 titles vying for the golden statuette, upping the category to a five-title race. If this happens, it will be only the third time in the category’s 10-year history that the Best Animated Feature race has five nominees in the running (in 2002 and 2009). Stay tuned for more exciting news about this year’s animated Oscar race.